The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XIV Part 19

[FN#190] The reader will have remarked the use of the Arabic "'Alaka"=he hung, which with its branches greatly resembles the Lat. pendere.

[FN#191] Arab. "Min al-Malabis," plur. of "Malbas"=anything pleasant or enjoyable; as the plural of "Milbas"=dress, garment, it cannot here apply.

[FN#192] i.e. "The Tigris" (Hid-dekel), with which the Egyptian writer seems to be imperfectly acquainted. See vols. i. 180; viii. 150.

[FN#193] The word, as usual misapplied in the West, is to be traced through the Turk. Kushk (p.r.o.n. Kyushk) to the Pers.

"Kushk"=an upper chamber.

[FN#194] Four including the doorkeeper. The Darwayshes were suspected of kidnapping, a practice common in the East, especially with holy men. I have noticed in my Pilgrimage (vols.

ii. 273; iii. 327), that both at Meccah and at Al-Medinah the cheeks of babes are decorated with the locally called "Mashali"=three parallel gashes drawn by the barber with the razor down the fleshy portion of each cheek, from the exterior angles of the eyes almost to the corners of the mouth. According to the citizens this "Tashrit" is a modern practice distinctly opposed to the doctrine of Al-Islam; but, like the tattooing of girls, it is intended to save the children from being carried off, for good luck, by kidnapping pilgrims, especially Persians.

[FN#195] The hair being shaven or plucked and showing the darker skin. In the case of the axilla-pile, vellication is the popular process: see vol. ix. 139. Europeans who do not adopt this essential part of cleanliness in hot countries are looked upon as impure by Moslems.

[FN#196] Here a little abbreviation has been found necessary: "of no avail is a twice-told tale."

[FN#197] The nearest approach in Eastern tales to Western hysterics.

[FN#198] A tent-pitcher, body servant, etc. See vol. vii. 4. The word is still popular in Persia.

[FN#199] The amount of eating and drinking in this tale is phenomenal; but, I repeat, Arabs enjoy reading of "meat and drink" almost as much as Englishmen.

[FN#200] Arab writers always insist upon the symptom of rage which distinguishes the felines from the canines; but they do not believe that the end of the tail has a sting.

[FN#201] The circular leather which acts alternately provision bag and table-cloth. See vols. i. 178; v. 8; viii. 269, and ix.

141.

[FN#202] He refused because he suspected some trick and would not be on terms of bread and salt with the stranger.

[FN#203] The story contains excellent material, but the writer or the copier has "scamped" it in two crucial points, the meeting of the bereaved Sultan and his wife (Night ccclxxvii.) and the finale where we miss the pathetic conclusions of the Mac. and Bresl. Edits. Also a comparison of this hurried denouement with the artistic tableau of "King Omar bin al-Nu'uman," where all the actors are mustered upon the stage before the curtain falls, measures the difference between this MS. and the printed texts, showing the superior polish and finish of the latter.

[FN#204] Vol. iii. pp. 386-97, where it follows immediately the last story. Scott (Story of the Avaricious Cauzee and his Wife, vi. 112) has translated it after his own fashion, excising half and supplying it out of his own invention; and Gauttier has followed suit in the Histoire du Cadi avare et de sa Femme, vi.

254.

[FN#205] Tarabulus and Atrabulus are Arabisations of Tripolis (hod. Tripoli) the well-known port-town north of Bayrut; founded by the Phoenicians, rose to fame under the Seleucidae, and was made splendid by the Romans. See Socin's "Baedeker," p. 509.

[FN#206] i.e. the Kazi's court-house

[FN#207] Arab. "Buksumah" = "hard bread" (Americanice).

[FN#208] Arab. "Sufrah umm jalajil." Lit. an eating-cloth with little bells, like those hung to a camel, or metal plates as on the rim of a tambourine.

[FN#209] The Kursi here = the stool upon which the "Siniyah" or tray of tinned copper is placed, the former serving as a table.

These stools, some 15 inches high and of wood inlaid with bone, tortoise-sh.e.l.l or mother-of-pearl, are now common in England, where one often sees children using them as seats. The two (Kursi and Siniyah) compose the Sufrah, when the word is used in the sense of our "dinner-table." Lane (M.E. chapt. v.) gives an ill.u.s.tration of both articles.

[FN#210] Arab. "Jaridah," a palm-frond stripped of its leaves (Supplemental vol. i. 203), hence the "Jarid" used as a javelin; see vol. vi. 263.

[FN#211] An Egyptian or a Syrian housewife will make twenty dishes out of roast lamb, wholly unlike the "good plain cook" of Great or Greater Britain, who leaves the stomach to do all the work of digestion in which she ought to but does not a.s.sist.

[FN#212] A plate of "Baysar" or "Faysar," a dish peculiar to Egypt; beans seasoned with milk and honey and generally eaten with meat. See Mr. Guy Lestrange's "Al-Mukaddasi," Description of Syria, p. 80; an author who wrote cir. A.H. 986. Scott (vi. 119) has "A savoury dish called byssarut, which is composed of parched beans and pounded salt meat, mixed up with various seeds, onions and garlic." Gauttier (vi. 261) carefully avoids giving the Arabic name, which occurs in a subsequent tale (Nights cdxliv.) when a laxative is required.

[FN#213] Arab. "Mulukhiyah nashiyah," lit. = flowing; i.e. soft like epinards au jus. Mulukhiya that favourite vegetable, the malva esculenta is derived from the Gr. {Greek} (also written {Greek}) from {Greek} = to soften, because somewhat relaxing. In ancient Athens it was the food of the poorer cla.s.ses and in Egypt it is eaten by all, taking the place of our spinach and sorrel.

[FN#214] Arab. "Kalak" = lit. "agitation," "disquietude" and here used as syn. with "Kulanj," a true colic.

[FN#215] Arab. "Mazarat," from "Mazr," = being addled (an egg).

[FN#216] Here is an allusion to the "Ma.s.sage," which in these days has a.s.sumed throughout Europe all the pretensions of scientific medical treatment. The word has been needlessly derived from the Arab. "Mas'h" = rubbing, kneading; but we have the Gr. synonym and the Lat. Ma.s.sare. The text describes child-bed customs amongst Moslem women, and the delivery of the Kazi has all the realism of M. Zola's accouchement in La Joie de Vivre.

[FN#217] Arab. "Fa'alah" = the building craft, builders' trade.

[FN#218] In text "Kawwarah," which is not found in the dictionaries. "Kuwaray"= that which is cut off from the side of a thing, etc. My translation is wholly tentative: perhaps Kawwara may be a copyist's error for "Kazazah" = vulg. a (flask of) gla.s.s.

[FN#219] The "Khaznah," = treasury, is a thousand "Kis" = 500 piastres, or 5 at par; and thus represents 5,000, a large sum for Tripoli in those days.

[FN#220] The same incident occurs in that pathetic tale with an ill name = "How Abu al-Hasan brake Wind." vol. v. 135.

[FN#221] Arab. "Karkabah," clerical error (?) for "Karkarah" = driving (as wind the clouds); rumbling of wind in bowels. Dr.

Steinga.s.s holds that it is formed by addition of a second "K,"

from the root "Karb," one of whose meanings is: "to inflate the stomach."

[FN#222] For Ummu 'Amrin = mother of 'Amru, so written and p.r.o.nounced " 'Amr," a fancy name, see vol. v. 118, for the Tale of the Schoolmaster, a well-known "Joe Miller." [Ummu 'Amrin, like Ummu 'amirin, is a slang term for "hyena." Hence, if a.s.s and Umm Amr went off together, it is more than likely that neither came back.--St.]

[FN#223] A slang name for Death. "Kash'am" has various sigs. esp.

the lion, hence Rabi'at al-Faras (of the horses), one of the four sons of Nizar was surnamed Al-Kash'am from his c?ur de lion (Al- Mas'udi iii. 238). Another pleasant term for departing life is Abu Yahya = Father of John, which also means "The Living" from Hayy--Death being the lord of all: hence "Yamut" lit.= he dies, is an ill-omened name amongst Arabs. Kash'am is also a hyena, and Umm Kash'am is syn. with Umm 'amir (vol. i. 43). It was considered a point of good breeding to use these "Kunyah" for the purpose of varying speech (see al-Hariri a.s.s. xix.). The phrase in the text = meaning went to h.e.l.l, as a proverb was first used by Zuhayr, one of the "Suspended Poets." Umm Kash'am was the P.N.

of a runaway camel which, pa.s.sing by a large fire, shied and flung its riding saddle into the flames. So in Al-Siyuti's "History of the Caliphs" (p. 447), the text has "And Malak Shah went to where her saddle was thrown by Umm Kash'am," which Major Jarrett renders "departed to h.e.l.l-fire."

[FN#224] Scott's "Story of the Bhang-eater and Cauzee," vi. 126: Gauttier, Histoire du Preneur d'Opium et du Cadi, vi. 268.

[FN#225] Arab. "Lawwaha" = lit. pointing out, making clear.

[FN#226] Text "in his belly," but afterwards in his "Halkah" = throat, throttle, which gives better sense.

[FN#227] In text "Hayishah" from "Haysh" = spoiling, etc.

[FN#228] Arab. "Yauh!" See vols. ii. 321; vi. 235.

[FN#229] Arab. "Ya Jad'an" (p.r.o.n. "Gad'an") more gen. "Ya Jad'a"

= mon brave!

[FN#230] In text "Ya 'Arzad": prob. a clerical slip for "'Urzat,"

plur. of "'Urzah" = a companion, a (low) fellow, a man evil spoken of.

[FN#231] Easterns love drinking in a bright light: see vol. ii.

59.

[FN#232] Arab. "'Akl" (= comprehension, understanding) and "Nakl"

(= copying, describing, transcribing), a favourite phrase in this MS.